“Yes. About that.” Kate paused. Her mother looked at her quizzically. Kate cleared her throat. “I think he might be more than fond. Well, what I mean to say is, he asked … he asked me to marry him.”
Ma’s face transformed at the words. Such light and vibrancy and joy flooded her features that Kate couldn’t help but laugh. Ma dropped her mending and clasped Kate’s hands in hers. “Oh Katherine, what news! How wonderful! I thought he’d ask eventually, but so soon! He just couldn’t help himself, I suppose. And I don’t blame him! What a treasure you are.” She leaned over and gave Kate a hard squeeze, thenheld her at arm's length. “And you said yes, of course? How could you not? Such a handsome and godly man! Oh, my sweet daughter, wed at last!”
A lump formed in Kate’s throat as she gazed into her mother’s beaming face. Ma hadn’t smiled like that since before Danny’s death. Something that brought her mother such joy within the dark valley she walked must be something worth doing. She smiled as widely as she could, tamping down her tears. “Of course it’s a yes. I mean, I haven’t officially said it yet. I wanted to talk with you first.”
“Well, you have my wholehearted blessing!” Her brow furrowed. “Has Andrew talked to your father yet?”
“Yes, they talked it over yesterday, apparently.”
“Aaron McGrath, that scoundrel! How could he not tell me such momentous news?”
“He knows how much you need your rest, Ma.”
Ma laid a soft hand on Kate’s cheek. “And you’re happy?”
Kate smiled into her mother’s eyes. They sparkled with a life that had been missing for so long. “Of course, Ma.”
Ma nodded. “Did Andrew say when he wanted the wedding?”
“He wrote to a preacher who was comin’ through the valley at Christmas,” Kate said faintly.
“My word, we have our work cut out for us!” Ma set her mending into the basket and got up from her chair, walking across the room with more strength and purpose than Kate could remember. She almost wept for joy. Her mother called over her shoulder. “Come, Katherine! I knew carting my ‘trunk of femininity’ across the continent would prove fortuitous, no matter how your father griped. Your trousseau awaits!”
Kate got up and followed, the happiness at seeing her mother’s smiling face eclipsing the eddies of indiscernible emotions that still swirled in the corners of her heart.
For the first time in ages, Ma sat with them for supper that night, sharing secretive smiles with Pa across the table between the ebbs of conversation. Ian kept glancing between them. He caught Kate’s eye and raised his eyebrows in a silent question. Kate blushed and shook her head ever so slightly, cutting her eyes over to Andrew sitting beside her, enthusiastically eating his second piece of pumpkin pie. Ian just shrugged. Kate breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. She hadn’t had a chance to talk with Andrew yet. If Danny had been here, he would’ve loudly demanded what the secret was within thirty seconds of sitting down. Her brow crinkled. Pumpkin pie was one of his favorites. She put her fork down, swallowing hard.
“May I walk with you this evenin’, Miss Kate?”
Relieved at the interruption to her thoughts, she looked up at Andrew and mustered a smile. “Yes, of course, Andrew.”
He smiled back and took a sip of coffee. “It’s a date then.”
Later, with supper all cleaned up and the dishes put away, Kate swung her shawl around her shoulders and stepped outside. Andrew waited for her and took her arm, looping it through his, leading out with a purposeful stride. Kate lengthened her steps to keep up. He led her past the barn and up the small hill behind the cabin, not to her usual spot down by the creek. She glanced up at him. He wore a small smile. Had he picked up on the barely restrained energy around the table tonight? Her breath quickened.
He stopped at the top of the hill and turned to her, his dark eyebrows raised. “So?”
“So?” Kate responded breathlessly.
“You got an answer for me?”
She swallowed hard. This was it. One word would set her on a path she knew nothing about, not really, but one she had dreamed about all her life. A path of marriage, children, a home of her own, with a man who had all the qualities that would make many a young woman proffer their hand for a ring. He wasn’t lazy or given to drunkenness or gambling, and he wasn’t unkind. He was handsome and hardworking, respectful to her parents, a godly man who followed the Scriptures. She could love a man like that, couldn’t she?
Kate looked into Andrew’s dark eyes and saw an intensity of feeling there that made her heart flutter. He loved her. She had no doubt in her mind about that. An image of her mother’s beaming face filled her mind. This is something that would make so many people happy. It must be good, right? But her heart wasn’t set on fire by the thought of him. Her skin didn’t tingle at his touch. Her mind didn’t let go of its anxieties in his presence. She cared for him. But she didn’t love him. At least not yet. Could she learn? Perhaps Andrew’s desire for her would be enough to sustain them.Lord, don’t let my romantic, day-dreaming heart get in the way of this.
Kate let out a breath, trying to release her nervousness, wrestling her heart into practical reality. Marriage wasn’t all kisses and passion. What did Pa always say? Marriage was a partnership. It was work, he said, and you have to get up and choose to do life with someone every day. Kate squared her shoulders. She could do that. She should do that. Kate took a deep breath and said, “Yes.”
“Yes as in, you have an answer for me? Or yes as in, your answer is yes?”
His dark eyes were so hopeful. She smiled at his eagerness, releasing her anxieties into the twilight.Lord, your will be done.“Yes as in, ‘Yes, I will marry you, Andrew Thompson.’”
Andrew let out a whoop so loud and sudden it made Kate jump. She laughed as he threw his hat in the air and danced an awkward little jig around her, his exhilaration infectious. He swung her around out thereon the hilltop then pulled her close and kissed her hard and fast. He pulled away, grinning. “You’ve made me the happiest man in a hundred miles!”
Kate blushed and looked down. “That’s not sayin’ much, Andrew. You’re one of the few men upright and breathin’ in a hundred miles.”
“Then the happiest man on God’s green earth,” he said, still holding her close. “And I’m gonna make you the happiest woman on God’s green earth too. I promise you, Kate.”
“I’ll settle for just plain happy,” she said shyly.
